God broke Trent Green’s knee? What, did he have a hundred bucks riding on the game or something? That’s a pretty dim view Kurt Warner has of his Creator.
Still and all, he’s entitled to his views, however zany they may be. Other people who harass nonChristian teammates are assholes. I hadn’t heard about that before.
Daniel
Two points, neither very original.
First, every day I am again astounded by the number of people who pray for divine guidance and every damn time the Lord God Almighty tell them that He agrees with them %100. Just amazing. First it is amazing that they have a direct line to God. Second it is amazing that the Almighty’s will is always in line with their wishes.
We had the same sort of thing with General Gordon at Khartoum. Gordon, you might recall, purported to hold himself out as the Almighty’s appointed agent for smiting the heathen and held that commission to be superior to any contrary orders he might receive from Horse Guard’s. Sooner or later the true believers, theirs or ours, are going to get us.
Sounds like somebody other then Rumsfled gave him a heaping cup of Shut The Fuck Up:
But the same Donald Rumsfled and Pentagon folks which were ready to punish ordinary soldiers in Iraq for publically criticizing the Adminstration’s efforts now see the free speech light. Gee, what a shock.
Who is to say he’s wrong? He probably means the same god that sent bears into a village to murder all the children for making fun of one of his prophet’s baldness. A god who would do that would never balk at election tampering or peddling influence.
God probably does not like homosexuals either. SFW? Who cares what God thinks? The guy is obviously fucked in the head. Look at what he supposedly had done to his own kid. And he invented the platypus. Sick fucko indeed!
The real joke is that the same god that got Bush elected ALSO told the guys to ram airplanes into the towers. So surprising? Ever play with slot cars or model trains? The most fun is crashing them in to each other. Imagine how fun it would be to have little people inside when you do it.
I guess the whole issue of duplicity in biblical and general theological writing just missed me. Ever consider that God DOES tell people all this stuff and then denys it later through a mouthpiece?
Couple of small points if I may for my first post. Hi, btw!
If the critics can make a case that his personal views impact his ability to do his job as deputy undersecretary for intelligence then that’s a valid issue. If they cannot, then it’s a bit of a strawman to argue that his personal views somehow make him unfit for command, since he’s not the Chief of Chaplains for the United States Army and in fact is not a Chaplain at all.
I don’t bother to defend his statements, since to me, they’re the statements of a deeply held personal belief and not US Army policy. It is fair and accurate however, to point out what he has said in the past.
“Boykin compared the radical Islamic fundamentalists to the radical “hooded Christians” of the United States. “There are Muslims who worship here and support the United States,” he said, pointing out that those who act violently in the name of their religion do not reflect the principles of Islam.”
http://www.dix.army.mil/PAO/post03/post030703/outlook.htm
Biographic Data Source:
Regards,
-Bouncer-
quote from God:
“I was only kidding!”
The man was in full dress uniform. He was speaking in his capacity as a Lt. General in the US Army.
And he knew that.
Well, I don’t know about Boykins god, but if my God wanted to, he could find Ben Laden.
I personally don’t care if the dude thinks he’s a reincarnation of Shaka Zulu as long as he’s a competent general.
As far as football players who thank God for their ability, why is this anyone’s concern? One guy thanks his mother, another guy thanks his agent, another guy thanks God. So what? Next time YOU score the winning touchdown and you’re interviewed by Lisa Guerrero, you can thank whomever you please. And you can be guaranteed that, unless you mention me personally, I’ll STILL not give a shit.
Geesh.
Punditlisa, I see what you’re saying to some degree. However, now that the initial occupation has succeeded, this ongoing war is every bit as much about public perception and relations as it is about military prowess. A competent general in such an engagement will not make statements that increase the morale of his enemies. I submit that’s just what Boykin has done: by framing the war in “US vs. Muslims” rhetoric, he’s making bin Laden’s job far easier. He’s making it very easy to portray this as another Crusade against Islam. And that’s exactly what we don’t want.
Competence on the battlefield isn’t enough: there’s more to warfare than the battlefield. If his supervisors are competent, they’ll fire him and repudiate what he’s said.
Daniel
Some thoughts:
Assuming to speak for a supreme being is the ultimate in arrogance.
Assuming that a supreme being would bother to speak with your sorry ass is egocentric in the extreme.
Assuming that a supreme being is ‘on your side’ has been the basis for the mindless slaughter of innocents for centuries.
And yet we persist in the madness. And yet many of us still allow a feeble old man in Rome to dictate how we live our lives. Religious oppression only has the power that we as a citizenry give it. Religion is an opiate. Religion is a parasite on humanity.
This asshole is a danger to our country. Oh yes he is. It is precisely this sort of deluded warrior that can end up in the White House by force of arms. What, you’ve never read a history book?
Just some mindless musings, but then I’ve been up since three this morning.
Jesus Christ, I agree with Reeder.
God made you say that.
Well, in all fairness, finding Ben Laden doesn’t seem like it would be any great trick. Heck, he’s in DC for crying out loud.
*n January, he told Baptists in Florida about a victory over a Muslim warlord in Somalia, who had boasted that Allah would protect him from American capture. “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god and his was an idol,” Gen Boykin said.
*
Well, so far the only person who has really needed to eat their words is the muslim warlord. What happened to him by the way ? Is he now dead ? Is he behind bars ?
Doesn’t seem like allah did him a whole lot of good, like he foolishly boasted.
Also, the general said later he was reffering to the terrorists and not muslims in general.
Terrorists have no real god (imo). They are scum, and they need to be erradicated as fast as possible. A one way ticket to hell, where they can meet their true maker.
:o
"The man was in full dress uniform. He was speaking in his capacity as a Lt. General in the US Army.
And he knew that." -Reeder
With respect, I’d tend to disgree. On a splitting hairs basis he wasn’t in Full Dress Unifrom, more likely his Class A uniform. I only raise the point because you’re inferring a sense of authority present in the uniform. At that point it does become a little more than semantics to mention the difference. Still, we’ll call it his Class A’s unless you really want to verbally spar over it. 
The difference if you want to check it out (probably don’t care) is this:
Class A’s
Versus this:
Dress Blues Mess uniform
Trust me when I say the latter imparts a lot more authority than the former to the average civilian. But enough of that.
I’d definately disagree that he was speaking in his capacity as a Lt. Gen or undersecretary for intelligence. He was clearly speaking as an evangelical christian and both the group he was speaking to and the tone of his comments reflect that. He wasn’t at an offical US Army function, meeting or press briefing and he wasn’t under orders to speak at the function. If I were to accept your rationale that the mere uniform makes this an offical Army function (which is the premise behind your point and thus the rationale behind the criticism) then ANYTIME you see a Soldier off duty in uniform talking to someone about ANYTHING they are making offical policy for the US Army. And that concept simply doesn’t wash in the real world beyond DC politics.
As I said before, I don’t defend his statements, since I’m not an evangelical christian. I just have to wonder if part of this isn’t political in nature. I’ve yet to hear any arguments or evidence that his personal beliefs (and the expression thereof) have, or are going to make him less effective at his job. As long as they don’t, then he could be a declared Witch making similar statements (substitute Gaia for God) at a Coven meeting and it’d end up being as irrelevant.
Unless the goal is to attack the administration by proxy. If that’s the case, then it’s a good idea to remember that He’s served under Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and now Bush Jr. None of the democratic presidents seemed to have a problem with him speaking his mind on his time (and probably in uniform then too). Why is it a failing if he does so under a republican president?
Regards,
-Bouncer-